"His public denunciation of the British negotiating position came just a week after he openly derided a plan jointly proposed at the G8 summit by Mr Blair and President George Bush to encourage democracy in the Middle East."

Consistency, at least; why bother about democracy in the Middle East, if you couldn't be stuffed about democracy in Europe?

"Britain's retention of vetoes on tax harmonisation and limiting the power of the European Court to use a new charter of rights to make judgments that could interfere with Britain's industrial relations laws."